Altamin’s (ASX:AZI) Italian joint venture vehicle Vedra Metals has renewed its Cime Exploration Licence for the Gorno Zinc-Lead-Silver Project in the Lombardy region, allowing it to continue geological work and channel sampling in the area.
Gorno is owned and operated by an incorporated Italian joint venture company, Vedra Metals, a special purpose company established to operate and fund the project.
Vedra has also completed a third drawdown of funding committed under the JV agreement between Altamin and Appian Italy.
The associated Cime EL program of works authorises Vedra to undertake geological activities, including surveying and geological evaluation works.
Within this, the channel sampling program is designed to push out the mineralised boundaries of the current mineral resource, where new mineralised outcrops have been recently mapped from within the historical underground mine development.
Significant establishment work has been completed by Gorno staff to ensure safe and efficient access to work in these areas. Furthermore, the channel sampling is designed to provide greater data density to improve the confidence category of mineralisation within the existing JORC–compliant Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE).
New geological and topographical mapping of these areas will also allow detailed 3D interpretation of geologically complex areas to further improve geological understanding and to optimise future drill targeting.
Vedra’s team continues to focus on completing the phase one Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS), which will assist in providing the necessary technical inputs to be included in the future Gorno mining licence application.
Vedra also has plans for further drilling of the prospective areas identified by recent geological interpretation at the upper and central levels of the mine.
Both the mining licence and exploration licence for further drilling require Environmental Impact Assessments to be completed by the company within the applications process. Based on the outputs from DFS phase one work and ongoing environmental baseline monitoring, Vedra has held recent meetings with local stakeholders to communicate the envisaged project layout, with the feedback received being incorporated into the next design iterations.
Altamin says additional meetings with regional and national regulators have also increased the mutual understanding of the proposed Gorno project objectives and provided further feedback to the company to assist in preparation for the required application processes.
As contemplated under the JVment between Altamin and Appian, Vedra has completed a drawdown of a further US$2 million of funding from Appian.
A total of US$8.3 million of the committed US$10 million first tranche funding has now been drawn, with the balance of US$1.7 million remaining undrawn. As a result, Appian’s interest in Vedra has increased from 21.14% to 26.10%.
Altamin is an ASX-listed mineral company focused on base and critical metals exploration and brownfield mine development in Italy.
The Gorno project, in the Lombardy region of northern Italy, is at an advanced stage, and presents the opportunity to deliver ‘high-grade’, clean zinc and lead concentrates to smelters and offtake customers in Europe.
Images: Altamin
